No Such Thing As An Impossible Dream

Last week I wrote about my students leaving and how I felt about it. It was my privilege to make a speech at their graduation assembly. As well as the expected thank you’s and fond reminiscences I wanted to leave my students with something inspiring, and for that I turned to my own high school graduation. When I finished my HSC exams my parents gave me a framed quote by Bryce Courtenay, which still hangs on my study wall:

Dream the impossible dream and start walking towards it. On the way you’ll be beaten up, chewed, spat out, mauled, ripped apart, given up for lost. This is called “experience” and its very, very valuable in life, because what you mostly learn from it is that you were more afraid of what might happen than what did happen. One bright sunny morning you’ll discover that the wild and unknown way you took is carpeted with moss and strewn with tiny flowers. It has become a familiar path, a well trodden direction which has put you miles ahead of anyone else and much, much closer to achieving your once impossible dream.

The idea that we are more often afraid of what might happen than what actually happens is so powerful to me. Too often we find ourselves too afraid of the possibility of failure to consider the opportunities when we succeed. I have been guilty of this negative thinking – in fact I regularly get caught up thinking about what I might lose instead of what I might gain. But I am trying.

Matthew Michalewicz [image source]

At the ProBlogger conference I heard Matthew Michalewicz speak about the same idea. He clearly articulated how fear and desire are driving our decisions. Does our desire for something outweigh our fear of failure, rejection or the work that we must undertake to achieve the goal? Then we will work hard to achieve our goal. If our fear is greater we will not attempt the action, or will give up too easily. Looking back on my life I can see many, many occasions where this fear / desire dichotomy was at work: I chose not to audition for theatre school because I was too afraid of rejection; I applied for a promotion because my desire to prove myself was greater than my fear of not being good enough for the job; I asked Kirsty to marry me because my love for her far outweighed any fear she might say “No.”

Fear and desire rule our relationships, working life and the pursuit of our dreams. Fear is the “excuse” we give for not pursing our dreams – “I don’t have the time”, “I’ll look stupid”, “What if I fail…”. They are the thing that stands in our way, that we cannot see any way around, over or through. But if your desire is strong enough, any obstacle can be overcome. It is important to recognise this. To believe it. When working towards new goals identify what it is you want, and what it is you are afraid of. Name the thing that is stopping you from being successful, of doing the impossible, and then start maximising your opportunities for achieving your goal.

As a family we are chasing new dreams, taking more chances in order to improve our life. Kirsty has taken the massive leap of faith to leave her job. Sure, we are afraid of not having enough money, of people thinking leaving a good job is a stupid idea, of failing at our new business goals. But our desire for something better for our family, where someone is at home full-time, where we have more time for each other, where we can travel, far outweighs these fears. We have dreams that twelve months ago we thought were impossible, but we are now working towards them. We are feeling optimistic and excited. We have decided to buy a puppy. We are chasing our dream of a happier family.

What is your impossible dream? What is holding you back? What are you going to do about it?

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About The Author

Nathan Russell is a teacher, mentor, writer and man of action. He has been educating and motivating others to achieve their potential for more than a decade. He is now on a journey of personal change to improve the lifestyle and happiness of his own family. Follow him on Instagram at @SmarterHappier.

Thanks Kathy! Too often fear of the unknown holds us back from doing the things we really want to do. When we do have the strength to overcome our fears we often find that the scary “unknown stuff” wasn’t that bad anyway!Nathan recently posted…Taking Back Control

Love it. You sound like the kind of role model every teenager needs. Not only talking the talk but walking the walk. I gave up work a year ago to help our family become happier, and it’s made everyone even happier than I could have predicted.Michelle@myslowlivingadventure recently posted…summer dreams

To be honest, my students had a huge impact on me trying to walk the walk. I didn’t want to tell them to chase their dreams and take hold of all the opportunities out there, but sit at home and not chase my own – that way lies hypocrisy!Nathan recently posted…No Such Thing As An Impossible Dream

I love how you guys are pursuing life! It’s dry inspirational.
I have quite a few impossible dreams. I’ll have my youngest in kindy next year, and then I’m planning on how to go forward chasing them. 🙂EssentiallyJess recently posted…Flipping the Switch #IBOT

It’s so awesome that you guys are chasing your dreams. One of the things that I do when the fear response kicks in is do a mental ‘best, worst, most likely’ list. It helps get things in perspective for me, especially that fear of the unknown.Tegan recently posted…Mental As: Rocky Q & A

I love this post, but I love how great you and Kirsty are as a team, that you are both on the same page and I have no doubt you will smash your dreams and goals and then some! Fear don’t hold me back, lack of time and motivation do 🙁Emily @ Have A Laugh On Me recently posted…How you can win more free stuff!

I think fear is the core excuse I have at the moment and is wrapped up in a series of other excuses (time, cost, stress, ‘other things to do’). I am just waiting for the music to stop to take a layer off when I should just be tearing through the wrapping to get to the core.

I think the Bryce Courtenay quotation is ne for all of us, whatever age … Reading your post I am also reminded by a coined word someone told me – catastrophising = seeing catastrophes before they happen, as a barrier to a happy life.Wilma recently posted…Coastal Journey : Arty Places#14

I totally agree that the quote is for everyone. It is framed on my wall in the study and I try to remember it as often as I can. I love that word – catastrophising! I know plenty of people that do exactly that (and I have been guilty of it too).Nathan recently posted…No Such Thing As An Impossible Dream

I’m chasing dreams this year too, after many years in the wilderness looking after babies and young children. I really enjoyed this post, and my bags are already packed for Problogger next year.Hugzilla recently posted…Please Help! I’ve Just Committed Food Blogging Fraud!

So glad to hear that you and Kirsty are chasing your dreams. Once you get started, things seem to gain momentum and all sorts of wonderful things can happen. For me, the trick has been not waiting for the ‘perfect’ moment to take that first step/leap of faith. With all the busyness of everyday family life, the perfect moment never seems to happen. I took my first step around this time last year (after some ‘gentle’ prompting by a friend) and the past 12 months has been an amazing series of new opportunities with even more unfolding in the coming months. It’s still scary and I’m still hesitating more often than I should, but I’m getting there and each success brings more courage to take the next step of faith.Susan Whelan recently posted…World’s Most Inept Fangirl

I think fear is a good thing – it drives us to want our dreams even more than before! And to make sure we get very clear on our dreams….Good on you for working towards your dreams, and your parents are so cool for the quote they gave you!Lisa Wood recently posted…Cowra Japanese Gardens

Yes, I guess my parents are pretty cool! I love your blog – I’ve not read it before, but got sucked in this afternoon! Makes me want to pack up the car and drive off on our own adventure right now. 🙂 Thanks for dropping by Lisa.